Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

JK Rowling: is she the guardian of our children's minds?

You might have thought from the initial shocked reactions to JK Rowling’s
The Casual Vacancy as it was published around the world yesterday that
this 500-page fictional cry of despair was the eighth volume in the Harry Potter
series.

But in case anyone needs reminding, this book is not aimed at children.
The Casual Vacancy clearly echoes many of the themes of Harry Potter; as
Rowling has put it in interviews this week, as a writer she’s concerned with
mortality and morality. And it most obviously comes to life when its focus
shifts to the teenagers who are coming of age in the godforsaken town of
Pagford, battling their own demons of a kind rather more prosaic than Lord
Voldemort.

But it’s clearly absurd – and not a little misogynistic – to view Rowling as
some kind of benevolent aunt, and someone whose job it is to protect and to
nurture our children. And it is something she has roundly rejected, declaring:
“There is no part of me that feels that I represented myself as your children’s
babysitter or their teacher.”

And quite right. Why shouldn’t a children’s writer, even one as successful
and as generation-defining as JK Rowling, be permitted to write for another
audience? Roald Dahl’s zany children’s stories are celebrated, untainted by the
suggestion that his much darker adult work will damage children’s health, should
they get their hands on it. Anthony Horowitz is as famous for his screenplays
for Foyle’s War and Midsomer Murders as he is for his two series
of teenage thrillers, Power of Five and Alex Rider. And he has written novels
for much younger children too. Full story here.Also in The Telegraph:1.The Casual Vacancy is just like Harry Potter -